Irreversible
by Mimiko Tai
Summary: AU. Time is something not to be meddled with, Hyuuga Natsume. Even if it meant losing Sakura Mikan. No matter what you do, you cannot return the dead.
1. Premonition

_New author coming through! Welcome to my first Gakuen Alice fanfiction. This story was inspired by the movie, __**The Butterfly Effect**__. Hope you'll like it! Please do enjoy._

**Warning(s): **This is an AU fic. And it isn't for happy-ending lovers. Read at your own risk. Rated T for language and character death.

**Disclaimer: **Gakuen Alice is the property of a woman named Higuchi Tachibana. I'm a woman (last time I checked), but no, I'm not Higuchi-sensei.

Let the story begin.

* * *

"_As for the latest entertainment news, celebrated tycoon Hyuuga Natsume, owner of the multi-million dollar company Hyuuga Corporation, officially announced his engagement to Sakura Mikan, twenty-five, last night at Delicadeza, a five-star hotel in Cork, Ireland…"_

The early morning news drifted from the open TV in the bedroom, and Natsume, who was at the kitchen setting his coffee maker, found himself smirking.

"…_Sakura Mikan came from a middle-class family in Nagisawa, is a graduate of BS Economics, and was employed in Yamamoto Incorporated, a prestigious manufacturing company, as Sales Manager. Many co-workers of Sakura-san claimed her close acquaintance with Hyuuga-san ever since they first met in an inter-company meeting, and indeed, it has bloomed into a lovely relationship."_

The coffee maker made a faint beep, and the young dark-haired man produced a mug from a nearby cupboard and poured black brewed coffee on it, closing his eyes minutely to savor the aroma. Quite distantly, the news anchor continued droning on, until her voice was replaced by a—surprisingly—fairly familiar one.

"_Oh yes,"_ the girly voice said, excitedly. "_I always told Mikan that they were meant for each other! And look, I'm right!"_

Natsume's crimson eyes flew open in bewilderment. Forgetting about the coffee, he sprinted back to his room and faced the flat-screen plasma television for confirmation, and, indeed, Shouda Sumire's blown-up face stared back at him gleefully.

But before Natsume could finish swearing the Head Accountant in his mind, the camera moved to show another familiar face, and, this time, he couldn't believe it anymore—what the hell was Ruka doing there playing along with this act of stupidity?!

His best friend, now a famous veterinarian, smiled serenely. "_Yes…Sumire's right. It even took me a lot of explanation—and I mean, really A LOT—to convince Natsume about his feelings towards Mikan. Seriously, that man can be a prick sometimes."_

The news anchor's grinning face flashed into the screen and finally concluded the news about the upcoming Hyuuga-Sakura nuptial, but Natsume still stood there, wearing a flabbergasted expression.

_The two of them had just HUMILIATED him in public!_

His face darkened considerably. _Shouda, Ruka…once I get my hands on you…_

But a cheerful voice snapped him out of his cruel thoughts.

"The coffee's getting cold, you know."

The young Hyuuga inwardly jerked in surprise and glanced at the speaker, and found himself smiling softly. "It doesn't matter," he replied coolly.

"Oh really?" Sakura Mikan pushed herself away from the doorway leading to the bathroom and walked over to Natsume, snaking her arms around his waist from behind and resting her head on his back. "Brewed coffee tastes awful when not hot."

A mischievous smirk spread on Natsume's lips. "It wouldn't if I drink it from your lips."

"Eew. Perverted as always, Natsume!" But Mikan didn't let go of him and just smiled.

"Yet, that's the reason you love me, isn't it?" Natsume turned to her and he slightly bent down so that their foreheads met.

Mikan giggled, and her honey-colored eyes met Natsume's fiery ones. "No."

"Come on…"

The brunette pulled him closer. "It's because of your hair, your eyes, your nose, and pretty much your cocky personality, you know…" She lifted her hand to gently run it down the side of his face, all the while smiling widely. "Everything about you is so _cute_…"

No words had been exchanged from then on, for Natsume's lips already met hers, and they were lost in each other's body heat, tuning out the television, forgetting all about the brewed coffee, and ignoring everything else.

Hyuuga Natsume's world was Mikan Sakura.

Mikan Sakura's world was Hyuuga Natsume.

Both will do anything for each other. Neither knew what to do when one goes away.

The reason why the world came crashing down on Hyuuga Natsume not long after.

* * *

**Irreversible  
****-  
**"_Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed. You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others, go flowing on. Time is a child, moving counters in a game; the royal power is a child's." – Heraclitus  
_**-**

**Chapter One: **Premonition

* * *

It all started with a beautiful Saturday morning.

Everything was going quite smoothly for the Hyuuga Corp. employees. For once, everyone was present, the printer in the auditing department wasn't wrecking havoc and eating papers mercilessly, there were no incessant calls from around the country, and the boss was in a very good mood.

_Yes_, Hyuuga Natsume hadn't yelled to anybody since he arrived at the building at precisely nine o'clock, and he hasn't skipped breakfast at the lobby café. The whole building positively glowed in his calm presence.

Their boss is such a happy man nowadays. They got to thank _Sakura Mikan_ for it later on.

The said young man was seated in his office on the twentieth floor, head resting on one hand while the other typed lazily on the laptop sitting on his handsome mahogany desk. Stacks of papers cluttered the space around him, and his brows were knitted together, as if thinking of something _really_ painful.

As the hand that was typing left the keyboard to blindly reach for the cup of coffee not too far from the laptop, the telephone alongside it rang loudly.

Natsume, inwardly sighing, straightened up in his chair and answered the phone. "Hyuuga speaking."

"You do not sound too grumpy, Natsume," an all-too familiar voice spoke.

Natsume felt his face relax into a soft expression. "Mikan." Right at that moment, Natsume assumed that Mikan was in her own office in the neighboring town, in the exact same position as him. She was promoted not less than a month ago, and he vividly remembered how happy she had been. They had spent a night out-of-town by the weekend just to celebrate.

His lips twitched in a small smile. Such memories.

Mikan's voice brought him back to earth. "Would you mind if you accompany me this afternoon?"

"Accompany you? Where?"

"Where? _Where?_" Mikan sounded incredulous. "To shopping, of course!" She had said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "For the wedding!"

Oh. That's why.

Natsume blinked. "But it's the wedding planner's job, Mikan."

"And you plan on leaving it as that?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Natsume said quickly. "Besides, you said that you're busy today."

"Oh!" He could almost see her grin widely. "Not _that_ busy. So, three o'clock?"

Natsume glanced at his open planner at the far left corner of his desk, and, seeing that he didn't have any appointment or meeting for the rest of the day, said, "Okay. I'll be right there at three."

Mikan giggled from the other end of the line. "See you!"

"…See you." Natsume made to hang up and turn back to his laptop when Mikan suddenly spoke.

"_I love you._"

Natsume froze. No, it was not because she said it. It has always been their custom to say 'I love you' at the end of every conversation they had ever since they started going steady. What made him pause was the unknown feeling that washed through him when she said it. Why did Mikan sound so…far away?

"…Natsume?"

Natsume snapped out of his reverie and replied, in a false calm voice, "I love you too, Mikan."

"Bye!"

"Yeah…bye…"

There was a click that signaled the end of the conversation, and Natsume slowly hung up. He stared at the telephone for a while.

…_What was that all about?_

Finally, he went back to business, ignoring the uneasiness he had just felt.

He decided that he'd go over at Mikan's thirty minutes earlier.

* * *

"Where do you think should we go first?" Mikan said happily from the passenger's seat, as Natsume drove along the busy streets of Tokyo Main. "You arrived too early. I wasn't able to finish planning out everything!"

"Let's try Shibuya," was Natsume's reply.

"And then let's dine in Fabisco's!" the brunette continued. "I heard that they serve the best lobsters."

Natsume decided not to reply.

Mikan side-glanced at her fiancée with a small frown on her face. Why was he being too quiet? "Natsume…?"

A short pause.

"Hmm?" His eyes were on the road.

"Is something wrong?"

The car came into an abrupt halt.

"What made you say that?" Natsume said, turning to her with a small reassuring smile. "And by the way, we're here." As fast as possible, he wanted this trip to be over, so that he and Mikan can go back to the safe haven of their two-storey flat before dusk.

Mikan stared at him for a while longer, before returning his smile. "Yoshi…let's get started!"

By the time they had gotten into the main street Shibuya was so famous for, most of the shoppers had already gone ("…which is good! We don't have to be squeezed in by the crowd!" Mikan said cheerfully). Natsume had taken into observing the shops' display windows with his trademark bored face, his hands deep in his pockets. Once in a while, he would glance at Mikan, who seemed to have already forgotten what their real purpose was and had pulled him into _every_ shop possible, reemerging once again holding paper bags and a triumphant smirk.

Not that he would mind. Obviously, he liked pampering the brunette too much.

It was already 5:30 in the afternoon, and the sun was halfway into the horizon. Natsume frowned as he gazed up at the darkening sky. "Mikan. We should go."

There was no reply.

Natsume impatiently turned around to his companion. "Mikan, I sai—"

But Mikan, to his surprise, was ten steps behind him. She was staring at something to her left.

"Mikan?"

Mikan turned to him. "Ne, Natsume, there's an apothecary over there." She pointed a long finger to where she had been looking at. "What do they sell over there?"

Natsume had approached Mikan and looked at the said apothecary with distaste. "Stuff," he replied. "They're mostly fakes."

A dingy store stood before them. The wood its foundation was made of was obviously decaying, and the red paint on its walls had long gone peeled. A pot of wilted hydrangea stood by the glassed door, on which hung a faded 'Open' sign. Just shortly above the door a dilapidated sign read _The Apothecary_.

"That's where they sell love potions, isn't it?" Mikan said, a twinge of excitement in her voice.

"Not that you needed one." Natsume observed the apothecary confusedly. What was a shop like that doing in an urban city? Besides, its exterior looked very out of place between the two lavish shops that stood on either side of it…

The next thing he knew, Mikan was already on the doorstep of the rundown shop, and was pushing the door open.

"Mikan, wait…!"

"Hello?" Mikan poked her head in first, and the strong smell of herbs reached her nose. "Is anybody there?" Seeing that nobody was attending to the seemingly long-forgotten counter, she proceeded inside and scrutinized the dark, smoky shop. Natsume came in after her, wearing a disgruntled expression.

"Are you planning on buying something in this…store?" He resisted the urge to say "junkyard."

"Not really…" Mikan bent down to observe a bottle of dead beetles. "…I'm just really curious."

"It doesn't look like somebody's here, either."

"Oh, look at this!" Mikan went over to a wooden mannequin, which displayed nothing but a thin, golden necklace with what looked like a watch as a pendant. She observed the exquisite gold carvings and the diamonds imbedded on it, and slowly reached out a hand…

"You would not want to touch that, miss," a deep voice said, making Mikan jerk her hand away and look at the speaker. "It is a very delicate necklace."

Behind the counter stood a tall, lanky man in dirty clothes. His long dark hair was tied in a low ponytail, and his eyes were hidden behind a white mask that contrasted greatly with the dark, murky surroundings of the apothecary. He was wearing a smile so spine-tingling that Natsume felt the hairs at the back of his head rise slightly.

"Oh…I'm sorry!" Mikan said apologetically, bowing at the man. "I didn't know!"

The man, who must be the shopkeeper, turned his head slightly to Natsume, then back to Mikan. "It manipulates the uncontrollable. It makes the wheel reverse its spin, makes the sunken rise back, and mutes the rooster's crow." Seeing Mikan's confused expression, he went around the counter and approached the necklace, gazing at it intently. "Of all the items here in my shop, this is the one no one could ever buy…even with any amount of wealth," he added, almost as an afterthought, and Natsume thought that he was referring to him.

"But why is it still on display?" Mikan asked quizzically.

The man stared at her. "Waiting for its rightful owner," he said matter-of-factly.

Natsume couldn't help but snort. _He actually thinks that someone will believe this bull? _He remained a neutral face when the man turned to face him again, resisting the urge to smirk skeptically.

The young Hyuuga didn't know how long he had been having a staring match with the shopkeeper; he had only been interrupted when Mikan's mobile phone rang from inside her handbag, startling the said woman.

"…Hello…?" She frowned. "…oh, yes…yes, yes…_what?_...okay, okay…I'll be right there…yeah, bye." She flipped her phone shut and returned it to her bag. "I'm so sorry Natsume. An emergency came up in our company and they needed me!" She pouted angrily and sighed.

Natsume shook his head. "This means rescheduling the dinner at Fabisco?"

Mikan smiled sweetly. "Pretty much." Then she turned to the shopkeeper, who was observing them silently. "Don't worry, I'll come back when I have time!"

The man gave out a small smile. "That you'd do."

As Mikan hurriedly exited the shop to head for the car, Natsume was left to pick up the shopping bags she left on the floor when they entered the apothecary. _That woman…leaving her bags…_he felt himself shaking his head at Mikan's childish antics.

He straightened back up and carried the offending items to the door, when the shopkeeper decided to speak up.

"Hyuuga Natsume," he called out.

Natsume paused in his tracks and turned to look at him over his shoulder. "Eh…so you know me after all," he said coolly. It wasn't too surprising that random people knew him. He was a celebrated millionaire, after all.

The shopkeeper smiled his creepy smile. "_I'll be always here when you need me._"

_Like hell I would_Natsume merely nodded curtly in return, and resumed walking.

However, his next words rattled his thoughts.

"…Keep _her_ close."

Natsume paused and looked back, bewildered. "Nani?"

But, to his utter surprise, the shopkeeper was already gone.

* * *

"Damn it."

It was already 9:00 PM, and still, Mikan has not returned from her office. Natsume had been trying to distract himself since the past hour by thumbing through random magazines in the living room, but to no avail. Every now and then, her face would pop out in his mind, and a very weird sensation would wash over him.

Words kept repeating themselves over and over again in his head.

"_I love you."_

"…_Keep her close."_

Natsume calmly closed _Time Magazine _and breathed deeply. What has gotten into him? Where were all these goose bumps coming from?

_Damn that shitty apothecary._

He looked back at the wall clock across from the couch where he sat. 9:04…

_I wonder what she's doing right now?_

9:10…

_Maybe I should call her? No, maybe the meeting's not yet over…_

9:15…

_I should just go there and wait. Yes…but she said she had her car there._

9:24…

9:31…

9:40…

…

…

_**BOOM!**_

"_What the hell—_"

Natsume's eyes flew open in shock as a loud booming sound shook the floor, and it was a moment before he realized that he had fallen off the couch. Picking himself up from the floor, he winced slightly as muscle cramps took its toll on him.

_Did I fall asleep…?_

He shot a furtive glance at the clock. _11:00! Mikan's not home yet?! _He looked around him alertly. _What's that sound that woke me up? _Deciding that things are becoming too ominous for him, he grabbed the coat that he had nonchalantly hung on the coat hanger earlier and proceeded to the door, with a jingling sound with each step due to his car keys.

What greeted him when he opened the door, however, made his eyes widen.

Instead of the glass window that ran the length of the entire wall, what he saw before him was a dark road stretching to infinity. Everything was in pitch-blackness. Even the air seemed to have been muted. His heart starting to race wildly, he turned back to his apartment, but saw that it was gone, too, replaced with the impenetrable darkness.

_Natsume…_

The young man turned around quickly to the source of the very familiar voice, but the only thing that he could see was black. _Mikan…_

_Natsume…_

"Mikan, where are you?!"

_Natsume!_

Natsume cursed inwardly. _What the fuck is going on…?!_

_NATSUME!_

Then everything came rushing back to him. It was like a fast-forwarded film. He saw glimpses of events…events in _his_ memories. His sixth birthday with Ruka…his high school days with his friends—Ruka, Shouda, Imai…Mikan—his first date with Mikan…his father's funeral—

Then suddenly, the film slowed down. It was playing something that wasn't familiar to Natsume; it was a road, a deserted road, and it was night. From afar he could see black smoke billowing from dancing red flames…

It took him a moment to realize that, in fact, the smoke was coming from a car, which was upturned and being engulfed in terribly huge, gasoline-smelling flames.

Natsume ran to it…for some reason, his heart felt heavy, and his throat had gone sore.

A figure was lying motionlessly two meters away from the burning vehicle.

A pale hand…a pale _ringed_ hand.

Natsume's eyes widened. The ring…

It was his engagement ring for Mikan.

He reached the figure and kneeled before it, pulling it in his arms.

He gasped in horror.

Mikan's brown eyes stared back at him, wide, glassy, and lifeless.

"_NOOOOO!"_

"NATSUME!"

Natsume felt a slap on his left cheek, and he groaned loudly, opening a heavy eye. Then the scene he just witnessed replayed in his mind, making him jump to his feet. He wildly looked around him and breathed in ragged gasps.

"_Natsume!_"

He was back to his apartment, and, with a quick glance at the time, realized that it was eleven in the evening.

Relief coursed through him. It was just a dream; a really, _really_ bad dream.

"Goodness, what's happening to you?!"

Natsume distractedly turned to see an anxious Mikan, still clad in her outdoor coat and wearing a very worried expression. She cupped his cheeks with her hands and said, "You're cold and sweaty! Are you having a bad dream—Pfff!"

Natsume had hugged her tightly.

"H-Hey…" Mikan was speechless.

"…What took you so long?" Natsume whispered in her ear.

"One-fourth of our sales was almost stolen, Natsume. The company is on red alert. I couldn't have gone home earlier." Mikan ran a hand along his back to comfort him. "I'm sorry."

"Hn." Natsume hugged her more tightly.

Mikan chuckled softly. "Can't you forgive me?"

He loved her chuckle. He loved her warmth. He loved her scent. Natsume closed his eyes and felt her body against him.

He's madly in-love with Sakura Mikan.

He wouldn't know what to do if she…goes away.

"Just don't leave me alone for that long again." He buried his face in her auburn hair. "I can worry too much."

Mikan smiled and hugged him more tightly in return. "Of course…Natsume."

That's right. He would take care of Mikan. Nothing could possibly tear them apart. He would make sure of that. _Even death, _he thought grimly, recalling his nightmare. _It was just a stupid dream. It can never happen...right?_

Hyuuga Natsume didn't know how very wrong he was.

* * *

_Well, how was it? I apologize if the atmosphere is so…what do you say? Mildly suspenseful? Please tell me if I should continue this. (smiles ruefully) __**Please review!**_

_Update might take time. _


	2. The Living Nightmare

**A/N: **Yay, second chapter coming through! This fic will not go on for long; maybe…less than ten chapters? Yep, it'd be less than ten chapters. I am pretty sure with it :) Thank you for those who reviewed!!!!

**Warning(s): **For the weak-hearted: character death.In case you didn't heed my first warning, I'm going to repeat myself. Now it's really up to you if you want to continue reading this. If you still want to continue, then there'd be a lot of introspection in this chapter.

* * *

Nogi Ruka was currently attending to a patient: a Siberian Husky with broken ribs. The poor dog was the pet of a wealthy family living just down the street where his veterinary clinic is, having been walked around by the father that morning of the same day. Just then, a small child came crossing the busy intersection road going after a bouncing ball, and Kelsie (the Husky's name), was particularly attracted to balls. The dog ran after it as well, his leash slipping off the father's hand…

Well, the rest followed. Needless to say, Kelsie was hit by a car, and Ruka, who was during that time walking home from a nearby bakery, had witnessed the event, and had rushed for help immediately.

The blonde-haired, grey-eyed man had always been, in one way or another (with each situation far more unbelievable than before), a lone eye-witness to the disasters befalling on unfortunate animals, like that Husky, for example. Maybe that was the reason why he ended up to be a veterinarian, after all. Ruka must have been bestowed the obligation to be the savior of animal-kind, or so how his best friend of all time, Hyuuga Natsume, loved to put it.

"Now, now, Kelsie," he said in a soothing voice, as he very gently touched the skin above the broken ribs and made the dog whimper, "this would do the trick." He raised his other hand, which held a syringe firmly, and slowly injected the sedative into the suffering dog.

Kelsie whimpered more, before, finally, the sleeping formula took effect, her blue eyes drooping and her consciousness ebbing away.

Ruka pulled off his surgeon mask and heaved a heavy sigh, turning his back on the sleeping dog and fixing his things. From outside the room where he was in, he could hear his secretary talking to somebody. _Another customer, perhaps. _Done with disposing the plastic syringe and packing up his dissecting kit, he pulled down the sleeves of his blue polo shirt and grabbed his coat that hung at the back of a nearby chair, then went out of the operating room silently (he should ask the secretary to carry Kelsie back to her temporary cage).

"Oh, Nogi-sensei!" his secretary, a cheerful young woman, greeted from her seat behind the counter. "It's about time for you to go home!"

Ruka smiled good-naturedly. "Ah, you're right, Hanabi-san…but would you please lead Kelsie back to her cage first? I'm afraid I'll have to perform the operation tomorrow instead…due to her unstable statistics."

In a flash, Hanabi was already walking to the operating room, saying an energetic, "Yes, sensei!" in the process.

"My, what a very lively girl," Ruka muttered to himself, as he fixed some of his documents by the counter.

The door to the clinic suddenly opened after that, the soft tinkle of bells accompanying it announcing the arrival of a new customer. Under normal circumstances, Ruka would entertain the customer even if they had arrived way beyond his curfew; the call of the animals was way too overpowering for the yellow-haired veterinarian to deny. But, this time around, something was on his mind that was so important to him that it seemed to nullify his desire for anything else—including the urge to stay in the clinic for another hour for those last-minute customers, just like this one.

Something so important that it had driven him to the extent of actually _refusing_ a customer.

"I'm so sorry," he said, his eyes barely leaving his own papers. "But the clinic is now closed. Please come again tomorrow."

"R-Really…?" the voice said disappointedly. "I was going to ask a check-up on my cat; he hasn't been eating anything since yesterday!"

Then, fortunately for Ruka (not), the papers slipped from his hands and scattered on the clinic's tiled floor, the sheets flying everywhere. Ruka, slightly flustered, bent down to retrieve the offending items, breathing a silent curse.

"I'm really sorry, young miss," he grunted as he shuffled the papers, "but the doctor's out. I promise to give your cat first priority tomorrow."

"I-Is sensei busy today?"

Ruka cannot see the girl's face, for he was bending over behind the counter. Nevertheless, he said, "Y-Yes, darling, he is." He felt somewhat guilty for denying the girl, but still refused to give in to this…_temptation_. _This happened too many times before._

"Did he go home early? Why?" the girl continued to ask.

"He needs to meet someone very important, that sensei." Ruka, despite himself, smiled softly at this. _Someone very important, indeed._

"…Who…? Another patient…?" This girl sure is inquisitive.

"Hmm…not quite…" Ruka restrained himself from chuckling as he continued to gather the damned documents. "…It's someone important to sensei other than a patient."

"Hmm…" the girl trailed off thoughtfully. "Like…a _girlfriend_?"

In his surprise, Ruka had straightened up too quickly that he bumped his head on the counter. Groaning an audible, "Ow!" he bent over, massaging the top of his head. _Great, now I'm walking sporting a huge lump. _"Arrgh…"

The girl laughed. "Y-You're funny…!"

Ruka attempted to smile as he straightened up, but it only turned out to be a grimace. "What gave you that idea, young mi—" He turned to face the unusually nosy customer, only to find himself gaping in shock at the "little girl," who, contrastingly, turned out to be a fully-grown woman after all, holding a microphone across her mouth and a small smile softening her stoic features. Her eyes, which were in a rich amethyst color, glinted maliciously.

"This is a voice modulator," she said to the microphone, which in turn warped her voice so that it resembled a little girl's. "It can be switched to five different voices, and there are two vacant slots wherein you can save two customized voice qualities. It is not yet available in the public market, but is currently tested in the Tokyo Science and Technology Research Center." She kept the voice modulator inside her shoulder bag, her long jet-black hair flowing down to cover her face as she looked down.

As Ruka shot the woman a half-reprimanding look for giving him the shock of his life, Hanabi emerged from the room, stopping in her tracks once her eyes fell on the late "customer."

"_Hotaru-san!_" she literally squealed. "It's been a long time."

"I better come back next time, Hanabi," Hotaru said seriously. "It looked like _sensei here is busy_."

Ruka rolled his eyes. "Very funny. That was another one of your inventions, no?" he said, ignoring Hanabi's confused look.

Hotaru grinned at him evilly. "Why yes. I was just trying it out on you."

"Err…I better check on the confined animals," Hanabi said uncertainly, as she couldn't relate to their conversation anyway. She scooted off back to the room where she had just come from, leaving the two alone.

Ruka and Hotaru stared at each other for another moment, before the latter decided to speak up at last.

"So you're actually trying to arrive on our date _on time_, Nogi," she said casually, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an amused eyebrow.

"Of course I am!" Ruka said indignantly. "What gave you the idea that I'm getting tardy on purpose?"

Hotaru didn't say anything and just offered him a soft smile. "Then what are you waiting for, baka? I already had a table at Fabisco's on reserve."

Ruka felt himself warming up under that smile. Imai Hotaru wasn't your average woman around, the reason why a guy like Ruka had fallen under her charms (she had them, if only you'll see beyond her analytical, sadistic mind and stoic face). An inventor at the young age of twenty-five, Hotaru had already been one busy individual, and a rich one, too, profiting from all of her contraptions. It was always a wonder to Ruka how someone like her still found time _dating_ him, a mere downtown veterinarian.

Don't be mistaken; Ruka loved her more than his own life. It's just that he couldn't help but sometimes feel that Hotaru was way out of his league—that she deserved someone so much better than a man who had spent half his life with nothing but animals. This insecurity was the only thing that hindered him from asking her hand for marriage through all those three years of going steady.

"Oi, Ruka." Hotaru was eyeing him suspiciously.

Ruka reluctantly snapped out of his daze. He smiled at her warmly. "Shall we get going, then?" Tucking his papers in his briefcase, he carried it with him as he approached Hotaru, offering his arm once he stopped beside her. "May I?"

Hotaru's eyebrows rose in amusement. "…The honor is mine," she replied, playing along with his game. Coiling her own arm around Ruka's, she said, "By the way, this is a group date."

"Oh…I see…" Ruka was taken aback. He had expected this one to be just for the two of them; their dates for the last two months had always been either with Ruka's or Hotaru's friends, or with Hotaru's parents, during that one time (Ruka's parents had been dead since he was in high school). "Who's it this time? Takumi? Yuuko?" he asked, reluctantly.

Hotaru looked up at him with an unreadable expression. "With that _baka _and that egotistic brat, of course."

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**-  
****-  
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* * *

**

Ruka now knew what Hotaru meant by 'baka' and 'egotistic brat.' It was the woman's own idea of the so-called "pet names," that were (supposedly) only for the ring of one's closest friends. They were…err…very well thought-out pet names, alright, but aren't pet names cute and non-bashing?

For the moment they entered Fabisco, the famous five-star restaurant, Ruka's first thought was that it thundered outside, considering that they were welcomed by a booming voice.

"**HOTARUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"**

The veterinarian thought he heard the windows give a resounding crack, and he inwardly hoped that it was just a figment of his imagination.

"Not too tight, baka," Hotaru said evenly, as Sakura Mikan threw herself on her best friend.

"It's been a long, long time, you know!" Mikan wailed. "We haven't seen each other for six months!"

Ruka felt himself smiling as he watched the two women, Mikan with obvious joy in her eyes, and Hotaru, with her stoic face breaking into a soft smile that must have meant a lot, considering that it came from her. Then he noticed the man that stood not too far away from them, a hand on his hip and an arrogant smirk on his handsome face.

It was none other than his best friend, Hyuuga Natsume.

"Yo," Ruka greeted, approaching the dark-haired young man. "Been a long time, Natsume."

Natsume regarded him critically. "You still hadn't proposed to Imai?"

Whoops, that wasn't something that Ruka expected from the cold Natsume. "…Not yet the right time, I'm afraid," he said, quite sheepishly.

Natsume glared at him, before saying, "Hn." He looked over to the women and called out, "Don't just stand there by the doors and block the way. There's this thing called a table, if you don't know."

Hotaru tore her eyes away from Mikan and glared at him. "You still had a dry sense of humor, I see." Nevertheless, she complied and went over to where they were, with a babbling Mikan at her heels.

This little reunion was something the four of them hadn't had the time to do for almost one year, mainly due to their own career lives. The last time they officially had a group date was six months ago, a celebration held for Natsume and Mikan's engagement. Since then Ruka had been concerned about his relationship with Hotaru, and, to tell the truth, constant pestering from Natsume wasn't doing anything but to deepen his anxiety all the more. His best friend looked like he was only doing this to be of some help to him, though, maybe as some sort of repayment for all those convincing Ruka did to make him finally pluck the courage to propose to Mikan.

It was a refreshing experience to get acquainted with them once again—something that relieved Ruka from all the stress that being a veterinarian brought to him. They had a fun dinner; so far one of the best dates he had ever had. Hotaru didn't fail to notice the happiness he was visibly radiating, surprising him when she rested her hand on top of his from under the table.

"Having fun?" she said to him.

Ruka only gave her a meaningful smile.

After dinner, Mikan pulled a slightly unwilling Hotaru to the wide courtyard, a feature Fabisco has been famous for. The brunette even invited the men to come over, but they declined, preferring to watch from their table while sipping high-class red wine. Long, comfortable silence had hung over Ruka and Natsume, as they seem to ignore the noises coming from the other customers around them and were solely concentrated on those two women strolling under the moonlight.

Finally, Ruka decided to speak up.

"You seem to smile more often now, Natsume," he said, noting the small smile playing on the other man's lips as he observed Mikan from afar.

Natsume turned to him distractedly. "Hm? Maybe it's just you who's becoming more sober, Ruka."

Ruka sighed. "Maybe," he shrugged.

Sensing that he didn't want to talk about his love life (for now), Natsume hastily changed the subject. "So how's business lately?" he asked nonchalantly, sipping from his glass.

"Thriving." Ruka pored over his own glass absentmindedly. "Business looked good, actually. I'm beginning to gain more loyal customers."

"That's good."

"…Yeah."

Another moment of silence.

Ruka had long become quite accustomed to Natsume's silent nature. The man was one who only required your presence and nothing more. Natsume didn't like troubling others with his own problems, the reason why most people, even those closest to him, deemed him as distant. Ruka knew better than that, though; he knew that his mere presence was already a great deal of help for Natsume, for he had grown to be a lone man—pretty much like Ruka himself—and simply knowing that he was not alone was more than enough for him.

The reason why Ruka knew, since first sight, that Mikan was the woman meant for Natsume. That woman was the only one who can bring out Natsume's true colors, the only one who can make Natsume's eyes gleam in that way and make him smile a real smile. At first, Ruka was in a state of shock; Natsume was totally unrecognizable whenever he was around Mikan. It took him some time before realizing that he, Ruka, was not enough to fill in Natsume's life; that he needed someone like Mikan, who can bring him a kind of happiness that a friend cannot give.

And that was the time that Ruka, too, found that kind of indulgence: in the form of one Imai Hotaru. It was mysterious, these "indulgences." Very mysterious indeed.

Natsume decided to break the quiet this time.

"Say, Ruka…"

Ruka looked up from his drink to stare at him. "Hm?"

Natsume was gazing off at nothing in particular. "Was there a time when you feel like she's gonna be taken away from you…?"

Ruka blinked. "Who taken away from who?"

"You know…" his voice trailed off. "That feeling that you'll lose Hotaru…?"

"What do you mean?" Ruka was confused, despite himself. Yes, he knew that feeling. The feeling that he might lose her any minute from now. But, he _knew_, it was not what Natsume was talking about.

Natsume sighed, before turning to look at him in the eye. "Ruka…" he said, in a bare whisper, "…I'm scared."

Ruka's eyebrows knitted together. "What's the matter?" He looked over at Mikan, who was by then forcing Hotaru to smell a daffodil. "Is something wrong with the both of you?"

Natsume placed his wine glass on the table, then wrung his hands together under his chin. "I…I've been having these weird dreams," he started, hesitantly.

"Dreams?"

He closed his eyes. "Of Mikan…_dying_."

Ruka's insides did a double-take. "W-What…?" He paused, before adding, "But they're just dreams, Natsume."

Natsume turned to him. "But I've been having them for a month, now, Ruka! They couldn't be just ordinary nightmares!" Something foreign was evident in his eyes…something resembling…

_Fear, _Ruka realized.

"It's the same," the dark-haired young man continued, "The same when…Father died."

Ruka didn't know what to say. True, Natsume was not one to believe in superstitions—neither was he—but, there are these times when you are forced to believe in them. Ruka, for one, was converted into a believer of Fate, after he himself had seen premonitions before his parents died from that bombing seven years ago. But this could not be happening; Mikan…dying?!

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

"…What should I do, Ruka?" he whispered, desperately. "_I couldn't live without her._"

Equal fear clogged Ruka's mind. He attempted to offer words of comfort, but it seemed that for that time alone, he had run out of them. He would never understand the fear that was dominating his best friend—Natsume and Mikan were just recently engaged, to be married in two months' time. Knowing your wife-to-be's pending death (Ruka had a hard time processing the word) was something unbearable for a man.

"Natsume…" he finally was able to say. "These are just dreams. We couldn't be so sure about it—"

"Oi, you two!" Mikan's voice suddenly interrupted them, startling them both. "How long do you plan staying here? Natsume, let's go to a place where we can have star gazing!"

"This is an _urban _city," Hotaru pointed out. "There is 0 percent probability for you to see stars. Pollution is too great."

Mikan pouted childishly. "It's _your_ job to solve this problem!"

Hotaru's eye twitched. "It's not something that could be done in only a month's worth of researching, baka."

"Besides," Natsume suddenly said, firmly, "it's nearing eleven o'clock, Mikan. I think it's time to go home."

Ruka gave him an uneasy look, before plastering a fake smile and heaving himself up from his seat. "I'll drive you home, Hotaru."

Hotaru shot him a _look_.

_Damn, _Ruka thought. _She's seeing through me._

To his relief, the stoic inventor merely shrugged and said, "If you say so." Then, she turned to the other couple and said, "I'm afraid it's time for us to go, Natsume, Mikan."

"Ehhh!" Mikan said. "But I want to be with Hotaru!"

"There will still be a _next time, _no?" Hotaru said nonchalantly.

Something stirred within Ruka at the mention of '_next time,_' but he chose to ignore it, thinking that it was just him.

But it turned out to be that it was **not** just him.

"Next time, huh?" Mikan suddenly said, her voice dropping into a whisper.

"What was it?" Hotaru arched an eyebrow.

"Oh! Nothing, nothing!" Mikan laughed at herself silly. "Well, bye-bye!"

Ruka and Natsume shook each other's hand.

"Ruka…" Natsume said in a low voice, so that the others wouldn't hear it.

Ruka tightened his hold on Natsume's hand. "Just keep her close."

A weird look crossed Natsume's face after that statement, worrying him all the more. "Natsume?"

"…Never mind," was his cryptic reply. "It's just that…I thought I heard that somewhere before…"

And thus, that is where their reunion ended.

…Their _last_ reunion.

With all the _four_ of them present, at the very least.

* * *

"Ruka…"

Ruka glanced at Hotaru, who was sitting silently in the passenger's seat of Ruka's Mercedes Benz. She was staring through the window, into the dark trees that lined the road. "Hmm?"

It was a moment before she replied.

"What was wrong?"

Ruka's grip on the steering wheel tightened even more. "…You noticed?"

A strange noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort came from the woman beside him. "I know the two of very well, Nogi. Even Mikan…" her voice trailed off, before continuing, "She said that Natsume was acting unusual since one month ago. I suppose the man confessed something to you?"

Ruka felt himself grinning despite all of it. Expect Hotaru to be always all-knowing in every aspect of their lives. "It's something you shouldn't be bothered of, Imai."

"Spill it." Hotaru's voice was demanding.

"Seriously," Ruka tried to lighten up the mood, miserably. "Nothing's going on. It's just insecurities prior to marriage, you know." Of all things, what he hated the most was lying to Hotaru. Well, what he said was half-true. They were indeed mere insecurities. _For now_.

After that, the rest of the journey was taken in comfortable, albeit slightly eerie, silence.

"We're here." Ruka pulled the brakes in front of a large mansion. Both he and Hotaru unbuckled their seatbelts and stepped out of the car, the cold midnight wind slapping their faces.

"Thank you for the ride," Hotaru said quietly, as they went to the large gates.

Ruka grinned sheepishly. "So tomorrow?"

Hotaru glanced at him smilingly. "I guess."

It was when that Hotaru had reached out a hand for the gates that the front door of the mansion suddenly burst open, with a tall, lean figure running through it and into the night, towards their direction.

The open lights in the mansion illuminated his face. It was Hotaru's older brother, Subaru.

"Brother," Hotaru breathed, as the gates before her and Ruka automatically opened and Subaru stopped short before them, panting slightly. "Is something wrong?"

"You better see this," he said between ragged breaths. He turned to Ruka. "You too, Ruka."

The couple exchanged wary glances, before facing Subaru back and nodding briefly.

The elder Imai led them into the mansion, ignoring occasional questions coming from the other two. He just shook his head, muttering, "You'll see" and "Later" to cut them off. Finally, they arrived at his bedroom, and he hurriedly led them inside before closing the door silently.

"What's this?" Ruka voiced out. He couldn't help but feel anxious. "What's going on?"

Subaru closed his eye briefly, before retrieving something in his bedside table, which turned out to be a remote. He pushed the power on, and the television across the bed where they sat flickered open, televising a flash report.

"…_found by the police authorities at exactly fifteen minutes after eleven o'clock, the estimated time when the accident occurred. Currently, the two passengers of the black Chevrolet Malibu with the plate number XXX is confined at General Cross Private Hospital…" _the female newscaster paused, as she received a message in her earpiece.

"_Fellow citizens," _she said, after a moment of silence, _"we are sadly relaying the news of the death of one of the two victims of this terrible accident. It was a Dead on Arrival case, according to the hospital's spokesperson, Dr. Takeuchi Yagami. The names of the two passengers of the car were also identified. Hyuuga Natsume, this year's youngest celebrated tycoon, is currently confined in ICU under critical condition, while his fiancé, Sakura Mikan, we are sad to say, had not made it to the emergency room anymore…"_

"At first I didn't believe it," Subaru said grimly. "Until it sunk in…I'm so sorry, Hotaru, Ruka…"

But the couple, who was seated at the foot of the bed and was staring at the television, weren't able to come up with anything, other than a strangled gasp from Ruka, and Hotaru covering her mouth with an audible sob.

Unfortunately, there had been no _next time _for themanymore.

* * *

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The Living Nightmare

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**A/N: **Yoshi!!! Finally, done with this loooonnng chapter! (_notices you_) Oh…did you find it heartbreaking? If you did…well, I'm so sorry…it just needs to happen. No, this is not yet done! There will be upcoming chapters, where I'll be redeeming myself. So please stay tuned!

Hey, **Please REVIEW! **This is not a free story, you know (_fufufufufu_).


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